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Detroit Trading Company creates 3 new jobs as it adds services

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The Detroit Trading Company has traditionally focused on making online connections for new car sales and financing. Now the Southfield-based company is expanding its bottom line by adding used-car sales connection to that list.

The 8-year-old Internet firm posted $9 million in sales in 2010 and raised that to $10 million last year. It's aiming for $12.5 million this year, a 25 percent jump in revenue due largely to the new used-car services it offers.

"That represented about $500,000 of our growth last year," says Don Campbell, president of Detroit Trading Company. "We expect it to add $2 million in growth this year."

The Detroit Trading Company creates technology that gathers, analyzes, and organizes Internet sales leads for car dealers. After the financial markets collapsed and credit lines froze, the company switched to selling its best leads with the best credit scores to dealer groups who signed on for the service. Now its offering a similar service for use-car sales, capitalizing on the existing good relationships it has with its existing customers.

"We identify ourselves at being very good at building relationships," Campbell says. "We believe integrity is a very good way to cultivate business relationships."

That has allowed the company's growth to enable three new hires over the last year, rounding out the staff at 18 people and the occasional intern and independent contractor. It has also been named to the most recent list of Michigan 50 Companies to Watch.